Thursday, October 25, 2012

Fall Squash & Goat Cheese Dip with Garlic Toasts

Everyone loves a good dip. For most of us, dip recipes are at the center of our entertaining repertoires. For the Pumpkin Harvest Fall Entertaining Workshop, I made this hot, creamy goat cheese dip that features squash... and my favorite part - a squash bowl.

The dip is great, but the garlic toasts were really the star in my workshop. I toast a sliced baguette them for 2 minutes under the broiler, then rub them with a raw clove of garlic. You won't believe how good.

Cut a hubbard squash in half. Place both pieces of the squash on a baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees. Leave one half to use as bowl. Scoop out 1/2 cup of flesh from the other piece of cooked squash. Mash it with a fork. Set aside.

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine cream cheese, goat cheese, green onions, garlic, sea salt, pepper and 1/2 cup of cooked, mashed squash. Mix until combined. Spoon mixture into the ‘bowl’ piece of the squash. Place it on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

A cheese dip in a squash bowl? It sounds new to me. I wonder how the squash will affect the cheese dip's original flavor, or if it would affect the cheese dip's flavor at all. Anyhow, this recipe sounds exciting and its photo is making me drool and hungry!

Oh my jesus, this was phenomenal!!! I just tried it today, adding a little extra raw garlic as well as a few cloves of roasted garlic and extra black pepper. You know what? It doesn't matter what I did -- this dip is AMAZING!!!!! So flipping good, and sticky, and goaty, and goooood!